I love watermelon. Just love it to bits. And since it's now in season, I am enjoying it thoroughly. I can eat half a melon in one day. Makes me pee a lot, though, of course, the water just goes right through.

This brings me to my question/concern: Is eating a lot of watermelon hard on the kidneys? After all they deal with all that water, don't they? I mean, it is just water, yes, but still...

Watermelons are 97% water. Depending on the size of that half-melon, it would be close to drinking the same volume of water. What's that? Four of five glasses? If you're eating it all at once, that's why you're peeing it all out. The body needs time to absorb the water. Instead it's getting rid of it as a waste product before it is absorbed into your cells. I don't think doing this periodically would damage your liver. Prolonged, it might do some damage; I'm not sure if it would be all that much. I'd think you'd be sick of watermelon after a few weeks of eating half a melon every day before you would do anything serious to your liver.

Or maybe not.

Maybe eat the melons periodically throughout the day.

__________________Knowing that death is certain and that the time of death is uncertain, what's the most important thing?
—Bhikkhuni Pema Chödrön

Eating half a watermelon a day isn't going to kill you, or damage your liver, or your kidneys.

Technically, your kidneys are designed to achieve homeostasis by balancing the fluid levels in your blood and cleaning the ickies out of your blood (urea, heavy metals, excess water soluble vitamins). The nephrons in your kidneys make sure to absorb the water that's necessary to maintain that balance--anything else is just gravy. Your urine should be nearly clear to pale yellow.

The one area of concern I would have is the amount of electrolytes in your blood with such a high level of hydration, but given that watermelon contains potassium, I wouldn't worry about it.

I actually just studied the urinary system in university--sometimes that random knowledge comes in handy, I suppose!

__________________
If I am not better, at least I am different. --Jean-Jacques Rousseau

This is by no means meant to attack the OP, but I find it funny when people ask questions like this. I was sitting with a friend (who is quite overweight) in a restaurant. As she was stuffing her face with nachos covered in beef and cheese, she lectured me about how watermelon is so bad for you because of the sugar. I found that sort of ironic given the situation. Don't get me wrong, I care for my friend very much because she has a heart of gold. I just think it's funny how people analyze these foods that are supposedly bad for you when we will still eat things that we know for a fact are bad for us!

I love watermelon. Just love it to bits. And since it's now in season, I am enjoying it thoroughly. I can eat half a melon in one day. Makes me pee a lot, though, of course, the water just goes right through.

This brings me to my question/concern: Is eating a lot of watermelon hard on the kidneys? After all they deal with all that water, don't they? I mean, it is just water, yes, but still...

This means you've consumed approx. 150g of sugar and 2 litres of water. As a comparison, 150g of sugar is about equal to 5.5 cans of Coke, except with the Coke, you'll only be consuming 1.2 litres of water.

I'm guessing that it's better to eat 5lbs. of watermelon than to drink 5.5 cans of Coke. I'm also guessing that 5lbs. of watermelon cannot be eaten all at once. But, if eaten throughout the day, I think it would be alright, though 2 litres seems a lot if you are drinking other things, typically.

Are you drinking other things?

Another thing about watermelon: it has some B vitamins and minerals that help with energy production (i.e. to make use of the sugar). I don't think Coke has that. The red can looks nice, though.

__________________Knowing that death is certain and that the time of death is uncertain, what's the most important thing?
—Bhikkhuni Pema Chödrön

1 cup of watermelon, diced, has:
44 calories
an insignificant amount of fat
170mg of potassium
11 g of carbs
very little fiber
9.4g of sugar
an insignificant amount of protein
various vitamins and minerals, including vitamins A, C, several of the Bs, and even some calcium

According to DietPower (the diet software I use), the fl oz content of watermelon is 4.9 fluid ounces per cup of watermelon. If we take an identical fluid measure of Coca-Cola, the nutrition information for that is:

55 calories
14g of carbohydrates
13.5g of sugar
very little protein and no vitamins/minerals

So, yes, BG, you are correct: watermelon is a much more nutritionally-dense food than Coca-Cola. Though the sugar comparison is a good one, the fact remains that if you have a sweet tooth, eating some diced watermelon is a great way to get rid of it, much better than cracking a can of soda.

__________________
If I am not better, at least I am different. --Jean-Jacques Rousseau

hello. i'm a pharmacist, so i have access to some cool references/resources. there doesn't seem to be anything in watermelon that would act as a diuretic, so any extra peeing would just be from extra water intake. watermelon is a perfectly healthy snack, even in relative excess.

as for watermelons being bred for added sweetness, it is a possibility. there are many different cultivars of melon. it looks like someone has made a new low cal watermelon that they are testing to see if consumers will like it. it might be years before we actually see it in stores though. hope this helps!

Reading your posts about watermelon made me laugh out loud.
I didnt know other people were as crazy as I am about watermelon -
as I, too, can eat half a huge watermelon a day, tho I hate water
and rarely drink it -
so I thought: This is a cool site and just registered as:
watermelonlover. Dont know the name of this thread, tho.
I also loved the quotes peeking out of the site here and there.
Because Im such a technophobe, I am amazed that I found my way
to this point. I wonder if theres a connection between
technophobia and watermelonloving, maybe all that fluid drowns our
brain and we become poets, instead.
Plotinus, 3rd C Metaphysician and Medium said:
Cant find that one, sorry. Well, heres Robert Browning:
'Ah, a man's reach should extend his grasp,
or whats a heaven for?'
Ta Ta
Mary

Why need to wonder (as to the username question) when she took upon that point in her initial post (first and only, so far--nevermind).

Also, while short, it's jumbled. I think she is talking about searching, then being referred to here, (TFP) signing up to comment, not being able to think of an appropriate username, but then thinking "why if I love watermelon so much, why not announce it to all?" and so we've gotten this far into our, the audience's, understanding, however, there's also a tangent there made mention of (her)self being a technophobe, thus bringing into question her ultimate destination and arrival upon us, the (more-or-less) technologically-embraced ol' timers. Somewhere along the way (by reading) I got the feeling she was referring to other user's signatures of quoted material, and so she decided to try and conform by leaving us with one of her own, of which I don't know how it ties in, (perhaps this is ironic) and thusly so, we are here.

I'm sure you had the feeling as me, Pinky.

__________________As human beings, our greatness lies not so much in being able to remake the world (that is the myth of the Atomic Age) as in being able to remake ourselves.

The sugars from watermelon will be mostly fructose, which is a completely different kettle of fish (food joke, geddit) to glucose-fructose syrup that you find it soft drinks with regards to metabolism and potential fat storage.

Not so good for your teeth enamel (got told last week i have to lay off the fruit to spare my teeth, can't win in this world!) though.

__________________
Office hours have changed. Please call during office hours for more information.

Hey Guys, and you will be thus, overcerebralization will only take you back to square one.
Oh, and tell Helen Hayes, never rely to on poets, for they will not only give voice to feelings of all, but will also drop in like bird shit, comment on your blog then fly back to the sun; never settling on your dried and crusty spirals.
Ta Ta
Mary